The big reveal (Annie)

Also known as Good News. Yes, I know what you're thinking, Surely they could hold onto this news for a while yet, I just don't need to know! but 1) you should be used to hearing things from us that you don't need (or want, in some cases) to know and 2) my name's not Shirley.

This big reveal is about the house and when we might get to hit the road. All along we've been saying we have to sell the house before we can leave because we need that money to live on while we're wandering and not working. But then I got the great news that I'm being laid off, which means I'll be drawing unemployment for at least a year. It will only be $405/week but that's $405/week more than I was expecting when we hatched this great escape plan. Between that money coming in and what we've managed to save, we could wander a while before needing to find work.

Roxi talked with our insurance agent about rates if we were to (hypothetically) rent the house. We were surprised to hear the rate is only about $100 more per year than we're paying now. We expected it to be hundredS more. So, armed with all this info, we talked with the one person who has expressed interest in renting the house in the past, and really the only person we'd seriously consider renting to right now ... Roxi's son. We tossed around some numbers and he did some crunching of his own and the bottom line is, we have a deal! He's going to move in in February and then we'll be free to leave when we're ready, which will have to be sometime after March 1st, when my layoff goes into effect.

We'll wait for some warmer weather so we can install our new back/side camera setup, and we have to get a couple of things done in the shop (front tires, extensions on the rear dualies, and fix the small differential leak) which has to wait until we've removed the skirting we put up for winter.

It really feels like things are coming together for us, renting to Phil feels great, and not having to wait for the house to sell feels awesome. We're really going to do this!!!!